Dear Editor,
In response to my labelling as anachronistic and destructive Lincoln Lewis’ fond reminiscences of violent action against people who appear to be scornful of and uncaring for strike action and his suggestion that the same should apply now, and his open encouragement for teachers not to go back to work during formal talks thereby breaching the GTU’s 1990 Agreement with the Government for the resolution and avoidance of disputes, all while he was comfortably receiving his guaranteed income through pensions, the goodly gentleman pens a nine-paragraph letter.
Seven of those paragraphs are dedicated to saying, in his eyes, I am physically ugly and that I look old. (Sigh…who cares about stupidness like that in this day and age?). I believe the airing of those views alone makes the argument that the gentleman’s opinions ought to be ignored and rubbished for being anachronistic and useless and without a place in today’s Guyana.
The other two paragraphs fail to make any sensible argument to support his backward, destructive and unlawful statements that there should be violent or any action against people who choose to exercise their right not to strike and/or that teachers should refuse to go back to work while conciliation is taking place despite the clear 1990 Agreement For the Avoidance and Resolution of Disputes entered into by and between the Union and the Government which states, “ …During the consideration of the matters in dispute under the grievance procedure there shall be no strike, stoppage of work…, go slow, boycott, picketing, retardation of production or any other interference with the Ministry’s operation by the Union…”
Lewis goes on to slip into his missive, his unfounded view, which is presented as fact, that the education system is crumbling and that our children are lagging behind their Caribbean counterparts. This was represented in another letter that Lewis wrote in another section of the media a few weeks ago. Then, he made a vague reference to a World Bank report. Neither the World Bank nor any of us in Guyana was able to find the report which the gentleman mentioned. My mistake then was to neglect to respond, figuring that people would understand his missive for what it was: political propaganda.
Guyana leads in Education at the nursery and primary levels in access, quality and output. At the secondary level, we lag in access, but this won’t be for much longer. There are currently 26 new secondary schools being constructed across Guyana, which ought to bring us very close to universal secondary education. Compare this to the APNU/AFC period in government where not one single secondary school was started and finished in their term and for which horror Lewis was notably silent.
In respect of Lewis’ false claims that I shouted rape in parliament, I invite Mr. Lewis to understand how his libelous propaganda influences, to their detriment, young people of the Opposition he says he wants to continue his work. Two years ago, APNU/AFC MP Juretha Fernandes, clearly mimicking her seniors but failing to understand her responsibility to be truthful in the National Assembly, repeated this defamatory rubbish in the said National Assembly. She was given time to bring any evidence of this claim. She could not because nothing of the sort had happened. Indeed, the only time I spoke of rape in the Parliament was when I piloted and passed the Sex Offences Act, thereby repealing a hundred year old piece of legislation. This may give Mr. Lewis some indication of just how libelous is his claim. Ms Fernandes was forced to withdraw and apologise for her untruthful claim and have same expunged from the record. Mr. Lewis is invited to do the same or face the natural consequences of libel.
Sincerely,
Priya Manickchand
Minister of Education